Who was the better athlete, Emmitt Smith or Barry Sanders?

There is no question Emmitt Smith played on vastly superior teams, with far more talented teammates than Barry Sanders did. For starters, he already has two teammates - WR Michael Irvin and QB Troy Aikman - in the Hall of Fame. read more

Two things- and they are very important. First, Emmitt Smith scored touchdowns - more TDs than any other player in NFL History except Jerry Rice. Emmitt ran for 164 TDs; added 11 receiving TDs; scored 175 total TDs. Sanders scored 109 times (99 rushing; 10 receiving). read more

Looking at the graphs, it seems like Barry was a more consistent runner than Emmitt and, after the age of 27, Emmitt’s production began to dip a little bit, while Barry stayed relatively consistent. During Barry’s 10 year career, he averaged 4.98 +/- 0.6 yards per attempt, 99.9 +/- 14.2 yards per game, and 1,526.9 +/- 270.8 yards per season. read more